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Grappling with Parashat
Acharei Mot:
LGBT Experiences in the
Jewish Community
Featuring Tamar Prager and
Rabbi Joel Alter
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Following Shabbat morning services
“Do not lie with a male as you would with a woman. It is a disgusting
act.” (Leviticus 18:22)
Parashat Acharei Mot contains some difficult language that has contributed
to the challenges lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) persons
face in their efforts to achieve full inclusion in Jewish communal life.
On the Shabbat the week after the reading of Acharei Mot, a panel of
accomplished LGBT Jews who have struggled with these verses, as well as
with varying degrees of tolerance toward LGBT people in the Jewish
community, will discuss their experiences.
Free and open to all. Childcare will be provided during talk.
Services begin at 9:00 am.
This program is part of CSAIR’s ongoing discussion of inclusion and efforts to
foster a diverse and welcoming community.
(Please see other side for information about the panelists.)
475 West 250th Street
Bronx, New York 10471
Tel.: 718.543.8400
Web: www.csair.org
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Tamar Prager lives in Connecticut with her wife and two sons. She is trained as a
public health analyst and a nurse practitioner. Since coming out in 1999, she has
worked in her own personal spheres of community to broaden understanding and
acceptance of LGBT people within Jewish communities. In 2006, she wrote the
cover story for Lilith magazine entitled Coming Out in the Orthodox World - a look
at her own struggle and ultimate acceptance of herself as a gay Jew. It was also
published in 2010 as part of the book, Keep your Wives Away from Them: Orthodox
Women, Unorthodox Desires. She has started work on a memoir of the same topic,
entitled, Almost Whole. Tamar is blessed with a loving, wholly accepting family.
Rabbi Joel Alter is Director of Admissions for the Rabbinical and Cantorial schools
at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Previously, he served for pluralistic Jewish day
schools as a teacher, rabbinic leader, and administrator. His commitments to advancing institutions organized around Torah study and Jewish living inform his past
and present roles. Joel earned his BA in Jewish History at Columbia University; his
rabbinic ordination and an MA in Jewish Education are from JTS. He received
additional training at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Shabbat, Torah,
Hebrew, hiking, good friends, and good food are among the things that bring him
joy. He is the subject of the chapter titled “Leviticus 18:22” in the book Passing:
When People Can’t Be Who They Are, by Brooke Kroeger.